PANJIM: The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) has identified 13 regions- eight along River Mandovi and five along the River Zuari estuary, covering a total area of 67.45 hectares, as feasible sand mining sites. While recommending sand extraction only by traditional (manual) method, the NIO in its report has recorded approximately 11.17 lakh cubic metres of sand volume along these zones.
The NIO in its report has classified all the 13 regions into 20 zones- ten each along Mandovi and Zuari rivers.
The NIO has submitted Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) cum Environment Management Plan (EMP) reports for Mandovi and Zuari rivers regarding sand mining clusters. The Directorate of Mines and Geology (DMG), has accordingly, kept the report in public domain for consultation for a period of 30 days.
The NIO was asked to undertake study covering aspects like Hydrodynamic modelling of flow dynamics; numerical modelling of replenishment and recharge related aspects/issues of clusters – including dynamics of accretion and erosion; hydrological study of the area under consideration; the diversity and abundance of phytoplankton, zooplankton and benthos in the study area; fish diversity; to evaluate the impact of sand extraction on the estuarine ecology and biodiversity and to calculate the biodiversity index of the estuary.
The NIO said that sand extraction has to be conducted by traditional (manual) method only with no mechanised boats or machinery to be operated. It has also restricted the activities to the available areas only with depth of extraction not exceeding three metres from the existing baseline profiles.
“Once the lease areas are issued, the delineated “Environmental Conservation and Management Plan” needs implementation,” the NIO said.
DMG had not renewed or granted sand mining permits for the last three seasons – 2018, 2019 and 2020 and 2021– after an NGO had approached the High Court of Bombay at Goa seeking restrictions on the number of sand mining permits. With DMG not granting permits, illegal sand mining was rampant across State ever since 2018.
Following directions from the Court, NIO was roped in to undertake a study of sand mining impact on rivers of Chapora, Mandovi, Zuari, Tiracol, etc.
